


Stay a While

by orphan_account



Category: Cabin Pressure
Genre: Agricultural College OCs, Domesticity, Gen, Martin's caught in the rain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-13
Updated: 2012-03-13
Packaged: 2017-11-01 21:31:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/361477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Martin comes in and brings half a ton of rainwater with him, the folks at the agricultural college take him in like a lost puppy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stay a While

When Martin finally got home from a grueling flight back from Vienna, it was raining, and he felt miserably soggy. Hunched under a battered umbrella that did nothing for the biting wind, he quickly ran up to his building. His breath clouded everywhere as he tried to move frozen fingers around in his pocket to try and find his keys.

They weren’t there.

“Dammit,” Martin groaned, before hammering on the door, and jumping from foot to foot to keep warm.

It seemed ages that Martin was standing there, waiting and wondering if he should just call Douglas and ask if he could sleep on his sofa in return for a colossal future favor. But finally the door opened. It was one of the students, tiny and pale Jessica. She looked even tinier wrapped up in a thick quilt that went to her toes, and her eyes seemed large and protuberant under her enormous spectacles.

“Martin!” she squeaked loudly and stepped to the side to let him into the hall, where he promptly began to drip everywhere.

“Th-th-thank y-y-you,” Martin managed, out of teeth that were chattering so loudly they seemed to have become their own percussion instrument.

“You’re all wet! Michelle! Get me a towel,” she yelled upstairs.

Martin winced. He didn’t want to wake everyone. But when he tried to tell her this, he couldn’t stop his teeth chattering enough to be coherent.

Michelle was dark-skinned and pretty, and she appeared with the fluffiest, pinkest towel Martin had ever laid eyes on. The girl gave a moan of pity and then promptly began to strangle Martin with it, grinding it roughly over his head before wrapping it tightly around his shoulders. 

“Thank you,” Martin said again, and this time his teeth were not chattering, though he still could not feel his toes. His hair, clashing badly with the bright pink towel, stood up every which way, making him look like a drenched sunflower. His hat was barely staying on, only because he had surreptitiously stuck it on with pins. It was beginning to pull painfully at his scalp so he somehow extricated an arm to adjust it once more.

It was only then he realized that the only light in the building were the torches that both Michelle and Jessica were carrying. “Has the power gone out?” he asked with dread.

They nodded mournfully. “Everyone’s in Steve’s room, since it’s the only one with a fireplace. You should come too! Steve won’t mind, he likes you,” Jessica said. Martin had to look down to see her, and he wondered fleetingly how someone could be so short.

“Steve? He does?” Martin said, uncertainly.

“Of course, Martin, everyone does,” Michelle said warmly, as if it were perfectly ordinary, but Martin felt himself going red.

“Well, okay. Then. I should change. You know,” he said, and they went up to his room, which was thankfully open. He must have left the keys inside in his hurry to leave for the airfield. Martin put the pink towel down carefully in a neat folded pile and began to peel of his wet uniform. He had his trousers down to his knees when two stifled giggles told him that Michelle and Jessica were still in the room.

“Wha—” Martin made to step back but he tripped on his trousers and fell over.

“Sorry!” Jessica apologized, and they both left, shutting the door behind them. Martin could still hear them though, giggling. He lay there for a while, a bit in shock, and then he had to laugh at himself, because it was pretty funny. And anyway, Michelle and Jessica were very nice girls, and he thought he had heard one of them say something very complimentary about his bottom.

He finished dressing, wearing as many jumpers as he could while still retaining the ability to move his arms. He even wrapped the pink towel around himself again, if only because it smelled very nice, like one of the flowers the students had growing in the back. He told himself he would not stay long at Steve’s, just long enough for his toes to defrost, and for himself to get a cup of tea.

When he walked in, he almost tripped on someone’s legs. There was an unbelievable amount of people in Steve’s room. Apparently the amount of people that Steve liked was very large indeed. And suddenly, Martin felt all their attention fixed on him. He wondered wildly if he still had his captain’s hat on, or if there was anything on his face. 

Perhaps Michelle and Jessica had told them about catching him undressing.

“Martin! Good heavens, you’re as white as a sheet!”

“Make some room for him at the fire.”

“Didn’t I tell you? It looked like he’d just jumped out of the Thames!”

“Thomas, can you make him some tea?”

Martin found himself sitting almost uncomfortably close to the roaring fire, a mug of tea pressed into his hands. He was feeling very warm, but it had nothing to do with the fire or the tea.

The power didn’t come on until next morning. And Martin did not leave Steve’s room until then.


End file.
